Lucardo – Gem Runner

Lucardo came onto the escape room scene with a bang, opening with 4 rooms, it’s a daunting enough task to open with 1 room, so opening with 4 is an amazing acheivment! Well done Lucardo!

They were recommended to me through Emma of Escape Obsessed, who has played all (I think) of Lucardo’s games, and has always spoke very fondly of them!

After another long drive down the M62 (what is it with traffic, taking 2 hours to get into Manchester from The Wirral… ARGH) we arrived at Lucardo and parked up in the car park a 2 minute walk away (and fairly cheap for city centre location) Lucardo are also a 10 minute walk from Victoria Station, and a 15 minute walk from Picadilly if coming by train!

The building has excellent signage out front, which made it easy to find… that’s always a bonus!

Theme:
“The famous 190 carat Saratov diamond from Russia is being deposited at the central bank in Manchester. Lucardo has hacked the security system, buying your team a one hour window to steal the diamond. Can your team pull off Manchester’s biggest ever heist?”

We have played a few “heist” scenario games before, but none so far have put us in such immersive settings, the finish of the room was superb, and very professional. The theming was carried throughout every aspect of the room, with excellent attention to detail, nothing was out of place. It really felt like you were in a bank, even down to the queue posts at the front of the clerks window…. it really puts you in the scenario! Clean, bright, sterile (like how banks are!) The ambient noises in the room also added to the immersion and theme. Fantastic!!

Game Play:
The game started off open, with LOTS of puzzles to be solved, this threw us in a bit of a loop as we didn’t know which needed solving now and which to save for later (this a great touch!) later in the game the flow changed to linear and we sped up considerably!
The puzzles were all perfectly in theme, with no ambiguity. A good mix of logic, word, physical and math awaits in this room, with a touch of Crystal Maze thrown in!
A good flow for the puzzles in the room, even with the non-linear start the room still flowed impeccably.

Clue System:
The clues were delivered via a screen, with a very appropriate sound (which for some reason made me smile!)

Game Host:
Adam was our game host and was fantastic, clearly very passionate about the industry and his games, delivered a great brief (not often we get such a thorough brief!) and delivered clues with brilliant timing, just on the brink of frustration! Perfect!